creative imagination and the wood

[radius]

I don't know about you guys, but for me bowmaking (and other creative pursuits) is not just about scraping and bending wood.  It's like a relationship between my creative imagination and the material.

As i start working on a piece, at first my imagination is in charge:  i see the stick and the bow i want to make.  For instance, i'm working on a holmegaard right now with some yew i found.  I imagine it with a raised handle at the back, a heartwood growth ring on the limbs and tips, wide limbs, stiff tips, and a sturdy handle which does not bend.  That's the basic.  Then, i approach the wood. 

Gradually, shaping the bow becomes give and take.  I feel my creative energy cycling between me and the stave.  Does anybody know what i am talking about?  It's like there's a stream of information going back and forth, which has the result of giving me ideas and mental imagery which i then apply through the tools.  The bond feels organic and spiritual to me. 

Don't get me wrong:  I'm not saying that i think the wood can think or talk!  Haha.  But the process of turning a fallen tree into a stave and then a bow is not all one-sided.  I think it goes both ways, somehow.

Any thoughts?

radius

[Grunt]

Musicians who are completely fluent with their instruments do the same thing, they tap into that creative energy. I guess it's all about raising your consciousness level.
 I look at bows and the things that go with them as  sculptural forms first and weapons second. Mostly I use my hands and eyes as measuring tools. I do have a 30 year history of making a living in my studio turning and sculpting wood that I can draw on that helps me a lot.
 I think the cool part of making these primitive forms is feeling the connection you get with human kind. People have been doing this for a awful long time. We are keeping that connection.

[Kegan]

For a while I built bows for no other reason than I enjoyed building them, and very much had the same experience. As I went on, however, the idea of shooting and hunting became more appealing and I lsot some of that magic when I woud go about building a new bow. Usually I approach a stave with an idea of what I want, adapt it to what I have in the given stave, and go from there, aiming for the best I can get in the end. Usually, as the bow starts bending and slinging arrows, I begin to look it over with thoughts of special touches and what not, but usually when I build it's less magical now, and more for a specific purpose.

[Michael C.]

Yeah I don't get that at all, it's just a piece of wood 

Seriously though I think that is the only reason I became addicted to this is that mindless freedom of just doing until you have it done. Creating stuff has always been that way for me no matter if its a piece of wood I'm making into a bow, flute or painting on. Grunts right that relationship is something that is tapped into when you finally stop trying to do something and you finally get it. I haven't been doing this long but I think that's why sometimes I have ended up breaking a bow is trying to making the wood do something it doesn't want to and the wood always wins unless your willing to compromise.

[Ohio John]

The wood is definitely the boss in the end! The best we can do is suggest and ask politely for the woods cooperation...... or put it in torturous steaming bending and clamping devices.  and even then there is cellular memory to contend with..... yes I stand by it... the wood is the boss

[sailordad]

yup, i usually start out with an idea as to what i want to make.
but in the end the wod always tells me what "it" wants to be,same with knapping.the stone always shows me what shape and size it wants to be.
i have learned to let the wood/rock be the boss.

this is easy to do to,just get maried for twenty years and youll be used to being told what to do.most times its not what ya really want either lol

[woodstick]

man that is deep with some good smoke. ha ha yea if you cant use your brain in thought of what you want go do something else. you gota know what it is before you start it is a pic in your head. ya dude getter done.

[radius]

kegan:  sorry to hear that...can you have purpose AND magic?

woodstick...yeah, smoke one more!

[Ohio John]

puff puff pass

[Parnell]

Heya,

I definitely feel that creating bows and tackle is an outlet for a sculptural outlet but it does amaze me at how much more the process encompasses.  I had no idea when I first started doing this at the new-year.   I feel more connected to the environment in lookout for materials.  This is a great part of the process for me.  Acquiring and valueing locally growing materials.  I went running the other day and found a great wing feather just laying on the path.  Little things like that make me feel like I'm in the right place at the right time. 

The word organic is being thrown around a lot these days in modern media and in consumerism.  What a triumph it is to understand meaning for that word through this ancient and evolving process.  I honestly believe the process is improving me as a person.

Puff, puff...pass.

Parnell

P.s.  Kegan, ever teach someone else some of the skills you've acquired?  May be some magic left there.  Just a thought...   

[radius]

me too:  way more connected to the environment, and i find myself wanting to identify all the trees around me.  I want to hunt, for materials, but just for the joy of the stalk and the thrill of nature.

this new bow is something i could never have planned with a laminated bow like i made last year.  I'm finding alot of the knots are going away, and as i reach floor tiller stage i find that me and this chunk of wood know each other in a completely unique way.

puff puff pass

[Pappy]

I guess I am about like Kegan,I will say I enjoy nothing more than building bows and use to make them and do what ever the wood wanted me to do but now I go in with something in mind and
al tho there is a lot of obstacles along the way to overcome I feel a little dispointed if I can't tame a piece of wood and get pretty much what I want. It still takes a lot of thinking and working around problems almost from start to finish witch a person really needs to keep the brain sharp but saying that, I still want it to turn out at least close to what I had in mind.As I have moved along in this I can usually look at a piece of wood and have an educated guess if that is even possible.Not sure weather I like Hunting or building bow best but they are both at the very top of the list of things I love to do so my bows are built for that,to be handy and efficient in the woods,Don't care much about building something that I can't do that with.Everyone has there own reasons for doing this and that is mine. I also really enjoy gathering supplies in the woods and I am sure that getting into this years ago has enhanced my woods skills and awareness of things natural around me. 
Puff/ puff/ Pass. Been 40 years since I done that. and didn't inhale then.
   Pappy

[GregB]

Sorry guys...I never did the puffing, only the passing. I will put my two cents in though...I really enjoy making bows, probably a little too much as that's about all I care to do in my free time. Also, if you don't make bows or at least hunt...I'm probably not going to have much in common with you or have much time for you. I, like Pappy build bows to hunt with or maybe give away to a friend and build it to their needs. I want the bow to perform well, and look good. I really enjoy the finish work such as shaping tips, handles and making the grip. I enjoy the sculpting aspect of it, and that mostly comes into play for me with tips. I like to envision what I want and prepare the inlay prior to gluing it on such that it will allow the shape and look I want when I finish it. Taking a rough piece of wood all the way to something folks might admire is pretty cool I think.   I've learned a lot from many of you guys...

[radius]

i'm glad this thread has gotten some interest.

Like Kegan and Pappy (and many others, i'm sure) i also want the piece of wood to do what i want it to.  To that end, i'm willing to steam it, bend it, cajole it, threaten it, intimidate, whatever, to get the bow i desire out of the piece of wood at hand.  But as i began with, it's a give and take for me.  I really enjoy bow building in and of itself.  But i look forward to taking a deer out of the bush this fall, having slain it with a bow i made myself.  Spirit of Jay Massey, be my hunting partner.

puff puff pass

[Ohio John]

pretty good medicine around this council fire. I've always had an interest in bowmaking. I made my first greenwood bow when I was nine by cutting down a sapling with a sharp rock and grinding to shape while green on a concrete block. I read everything I could get my hands on at the local library about archery (witchery etc...) I also devoured the Bernard Mason and Ben Hunt books on Indian crafts and lore as well as everything in print by Allan Eckert. I was extremely discouraged in my bowmaking attempts as the "witchery" scared me off of non yew woods and kiln dried lumber..... however until the recent discovery of TBB which lit a fire under me, almost a revival so to speak. It has such a grass roots use what you have feeling to it. What a wealth of information! I decided that more than anything else in my life I wanted to be hunting primitively as our ancestors did by the time I was 40 and teaching others to do so as well. I am 34 now and have been knapping maybe a year or so. My points aren't terrible but it sure takes alot of rock to get them! I have made several osage bows this year as well, and broken even more learning the lessons we all must learn. My arrowmaking and fletching is novice at best but I have learned to be self sufficient and see the resources around me in a way that the modern hunter can never understand until he begins that journey for himself. I also have gained true freedom in that I can hunt the rest of my life if I choose without spending another dollar at a store anywhere for anything if I choose.  I feel welcome now to the world beyond this thin construct we call"civilization".... not just a visitor in his hi-tech camos and camping gear, but a participant.... doing what we are meant to do and remembering how we ought to live in Harmony with and Reverance of our Mother Earth